


Underfails

by KoruChaos



Category: Undertale
Genre: Agender Frisk, Frisk can't remeber True Resets, Gaster and Grillby are brothers, Good W. D. Gaster, I don't understand why that has to be a tag, It shouldn't have to be, Older Brother Papyrus, Sans knows about resets but can't remember them, Semi Serif isn't just an asshole, he has feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-17 04:48:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9304952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoruChaos/pseuds/KoruChaos
Summary: Mostly just a one-shot collection. These take place across separate timelines and AUs, so stuff probably won't be consistent. I'm not very good at being consistent anyways, but I'll just blame it on that.Teen rating is for swearing and character death, but there are some otherwise depressing themes and mild violence as well.





	1. Please

**Author's Note:**

> Knight-Knight didn't think she'd be taking care of two children, but here she is.
> 
> Also, Semi Serif isn't totally awful for once.

Knock, knock, knock. “Hello? Miss Knight? Are you there?” She wasn't sure who that was, but they sounded scared. Very, very scared. “One second. I'll be right there!”

She didn't know who she'd been expecting, but it certainly wasn't who was standing on front of her. She had not thought she would ever see the Royal Scientist, and she hadn't thought he would look like... Well, _that._ The only thing that even indicated that he _was_ a scientist was the name-tag pinned to his chest.

The man on her doorstep was smaller than her by at least two feet, and was soaking wet- though neither of those were particularly surprising, considering she was over nine feet tall and lived in Waterfall. Actually, _nothing_ about him was very surprising, other than the fact that he was holding an extremely small child, which was somehow asleep, despite its handler's ragged breathing and almost-sobbing.

“I... Um, hello, sir. What are you doing h-” She was abruptly cut off-and shocked- by the Scientist stumbling in through the doorway and nearly slamming into her. She was even more startled when he tried to hand the child to her. “Please, take him. I'm hardly in a stable condition-mentally or physically- to take care of a child, and don't have any supplies.”

“Sir, I'm afraid I don't understand.” She was trying to be polite, but wasn't quite sure how to go about being polite to someone who had practically broken into her house and tried to hand her a child. “Miss Knight, please... I heard you talking in New Home, you said Grillby was getting lonely, and I don't have the time or supplies to take care of _myself,_ let alone an infant. Please, I don't want him to die.”

She was going to say something, but whatever her train of thought had been quickly snapped as the man in front of her started sobbing.

“I...”

“I'll take him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not really describing any of the characters, but I couldn't find a way to do it where it would seem natural.
> 
> Their discussion is a lot longer than this when I play out the situation in my head (basically everything is a little more stretched out and Serif tells her Gaster's name after she says she's going to take him in. You really aren't missing much), but the whole thing seemed really weird if I made it much longer than this.


	2. Videotapes, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a child broke into your home with a camera, you weren't expecting him to drop it.
> 
> You may as well watch the videos on it before you give it back.

*When you look at the camera's files, all you find are three videos. Two are about twelve minutes long, and the last one is only four. You have a feeling you know why that one is so short.

*Play the first video? [❤YES] [NO]

*The camera makes a small clicking sound, and the video starts playing.

“Grillby! Grillby! Come on, you said you wanted to show me something!” The surprisingly loud voice is coming from a rather small skeleton child. (*You are unsure how someone so small can make so much noise.) The person holding the camera (presumably Grillby) laughs slightly, and says “Alright, I'll try to hurry up. Just please calm down, you're going to scare somebody.” Grillby has a much softer voice than the skeleton does. (*You wonder what Grillby looks like. He seems to be emitting an orange light from behind the camera. It's creating some very odd colors as it mixes with the dark blues of Waterfall.)

The tiny skeleton starts running through the marshes, laughing like a madman. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to be wearing rain boots, and is kicking water everywhere. Grillby mutters “Oh man, mom's gonna be so mad... We just bought that shirt,” but starts chuckling anyways. (*You silently agree with him. That shirt looks rather expensive, and the water is dying the formerly-pristine white blue.)

When the children finally make it to where they were trying to go, the skeleton is grumbling about his clothes being wet and uncomfortable (“My shirt's clinging to my ribcage and it feels really weird!”). Grillby just retorts with “It's your fault, Dings. You were the one who didn't want to put on your waterproof stuff.” “Don't call me that! My name is Gaster!” the skeleton snaps. He doesn't seem to have any snarky replies. (*You feel like you've suddenly swallowed a golf ball. It's a very strange sensation. You can feel tears dripping down your cheeks, but you're pretty sure that's not because of the lump in your metaphorical throat.)

Grillby sighs in annoyance. “Well, we're here. I want you to meet someone,” he says, walking into a small cavern opposite Gerson's shop. There's a river in the cave, with a large boat carrying a small person. The robed figure turns around and smiles when they see Grillby, and then shifts their attention to Gaster. Their smile gets a little wider, and they wave at Gaster and Grillby. Gaster seems absolutely shocked, the only question he's able to ask being “There's somebody in Waterfall that I didn't know about?” His eye sockets have gone wider than usual, which is saying something. Grillby shakes his head, moving the camera slightly, as if he's disappointed Gaster didn't say anything. There is an awkward silence.

The person in the boat decides to break it by stating who they are and asking a question; “Tra la la. I am the riverman. Or am I the riverwoman...? It doesn't really matter. I love to ride in my boat. Would you care to join me?” Gaster immediately nods as fast as possible, and jumps into the boat, causing the Riverperson to laugh. Grillby, on the other hand, was more cautious, asking Gaster to hold the camera for him while he got into the boat. (*Apparently Grillby is a fire elemental. It explains the glow, at least.)

“Tra la la. Where would you like to go today?” It's a simple question, but seems like one that Gaster and Grillby can't agree on, as Gaster shouts “SNOWDIN!” while Grillby murmurs “Hotland, please. Gaster, may I have the camera back?” Gaster huffs slightly, but hands the camera back to Grillby. Riverperson smiles, looking mildly confused, before simply saying “We can visit Snowdin first, and Hotland after. Are you two alright with that?” Gaster and Grillby nod, glaring at each other for a few seconds before looking back to Riverperson. They just smile again, and say “You should probably turn that off. There's only so much battery power in it, after all.” Gaster growls a little bit, but reaches over to the camera to turn it off.

*The video ends there. You want to watch the other two, but you're too tired at the moment.

*You decide that you'll watch them tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bet you can immediately tell who you're reading as.


	3. Different

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus is curious, and Gaster is exasperated.
> 
> It's kind of a routine by now.

“Hey, dad? How come Sans' hands don't look like mine?” Was Papyrus's first question of the day. “Well, he's still an infant. When he gets older, his hands'll look different,” Gaster explained. “I don't mean that,” the child huffed, “I mean his fingers aren't sharp and the holes in his hands are smaller. Why do they look different?”

Gaster sighed. He didn't really want to explain genetics to Papyrus, but the question was just going to be repeated constantly until he answered it. “You have different mothers. Marlett had sharp fingers, and miss Halbfett had longer fingers than most other skeletons. It's as simple as that.” Papyrus seemed satisfied with that answer, but immediately asked “Why do we have different moms?” Gaster grumbled something under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was glad that his son was curious (maybe he would become a scientist too), but he was getting tired of needing to answer so many questions. “I used Marlett's genetic samples for you, but I didn't have enough left to make Sans, so I used miss Halbfett's.”

“Who are Marlett and Halbfett?” was the nest question. Gaster shook his head, before responding with “They were my assistants before your uncle Grillby decided to work with me. Marlett was too fragile to be around so many chemicals and volatile compounds, and miss Halbfett just went missing. We don't know where she went.”

Papyrus just stared at his father for a few seconds, before saying “I have no idea what that means,” and then turned around and left the room.

Gaster leaned back in his chair and groaned. This was going to be a long eleven years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marlett and miss Halbfett are named after the fonts Marlett and Scizzorwreck Halbfett. They have no impact on the plot, and are just there as Papyrus and Sans' absent mothers.
> 
> Papyrus and Sans consider Riverperson (who also works with Gaster) to be their mother, and they play the role pretty well. They're better at being a mom than Gaster is at being a dad, anyway.


	4. Judgement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They've heard this all before, and he knows it.

Frisk watched as Sans teleported into the room. It wasn't surprising anymore- they'd caught him doing it before. “So you finally made it. The end of your journey is at hand.”

Frisk sighed. They'd heard this before. They wished they could stop thinking about it so they could pay attention to their friend.

“In a few moments, you will meet the King. Together... You will determine the future of this world.” They smiled uncomfortably. They knew this already, and wanted to make things right. Take their friends back to the surface.

“That's then. Now, you will be judged. You will be judged for your every action. You will be judged for every EXP you've earned.” Frisk didn't respond. They already knew what he would say, but they knew they couldn't stop him, either. “What's EXP? It's an acronym. It stands for execution points. A way of quantifying how much pain you've caused others.” Frisk nodded, an impatient expression on their face.

Sans stared up at them now, his eye sockets suddenly empty. “You've already heard this before, haven't you?” Frisk looked back at him for a second and nodded again. Sans stayed still for a while, looking at his slippers, before looking back to Frisk. “Kid, do you know what a True Reset is?” They shook their head, eyeballing him quizzically. Sans lifted his head, sighed, and began speaking. “A True Reset is exactly what it sounds like. You completely restart the world. I'm pretty sure you've done it before.”

Frisk walked closer to Sans until they stood right before him. “Sans,” they said softly, “I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm not going to do it.” Sans just muttered something along the lines of “We'll see about that,” before Frisk suddenly wrapped their arms around him. “Sans, please. I don't know anything about what you're saying, but I promise it won't happen again.” Sans sighed, putting one of his arms around Frisk, and murmured “Do you really mean that?” Frisk tugged him closer, holding him a little tighter, and said “I swear on my life.”

Sans wrapped his other arm around Frisk, pressing his face between their neck and shoulder, and closed his eyes.

“Thanks, kid.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you gripe at me, let me clarify the main cast's age.
> 
> Sans and Frisk are both fourteen.  
> Papyrus is twenty.  
> Mettaton is twenty-two.  
> Undyne is twenty-three.  
> Alphys is twenty-five.  
> Asgore and Toriel are both 150+.


End file.
